Dr Cumes and I agree on many items. I've been saying for the last year or so, whoever loses in November and becomes President in 2009, they'll have Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Haiti, Iraq, Somalia and stagflation to deal with. The banking problem as the top 1% of wealth holders see it can be easily dealt with by bringing the printing presses up to speed. Items that are worth millions now will be just as valuable if they are worth trillions later.
The bubble collapse may happen before January and W may get most of the blame, although I have seen Republicans blame the '06 Democrat Congress for ending the fabulous growth of the American economy after W pulled it out of the Clinton depression.
If W decides to directly reduce a few hundred thousand Iranian children to possession as he indirectly did a similar number of Iraqi children, Iran will close Hormuz and light up the Saudi oil processing plants, he may be blamed for the teens and twenties barbarism.

It is interesting that James Cumes uses the simile of a tornado sweeping through the global economy when he describes the current turmoil in the financial markets. Applying the simile of the weather system to our financial structure is apt. One is a natural phenomenom, the other is man-made. The economy is a human construct. Even minor financial decisions made in the backrooms of financial institutions are like waves on a calm sea. James Cumes may have been very circumspect in describing the current situation in the global economy as just a tornado.